Fixed-up Hubble telescope spots distant stardust

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Newly released images taken from the Hubble Space Telescope are seen in a combination image. The freshly repaired and outfitted space telescope has spotted a new butterfly-shaped galaxy and wisps of stardust containing the elements of life being recycled into new galaxies, NASA said on Wednesday.
REUTERS/NASA/Handout

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A butterfly emerges from stellar demise in Planetary Nebula NGC 6302 in an image taken by the freshly repaired Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA on September 9, 2009.
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Galactic wreckage in Stephan's Quintet in an image taken by the freshly repaired Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA on September 9, 2009.
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A jet in the Carina Nebula taken with Hubble's WFC3 detector and released by NASA on September 9, 2009.
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Colorful stars inside Globular Star Cluster Omega Centauri in an image taken by the freshly repaired Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA on September 9, 2009.
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Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 6217 in an image taken by the freshly repaired Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA on September 9, 2009.
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Gravitational Lensing in Galaxy Cluster Abell 370 in an image taken by the freshly repaired Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA on September 9, 2009.
REUTERS/NASA/ESA/Hubble SM4 ERO Team

WASHINGTON The freshly repaired and outfitted Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a new butterfly-shaped galaxy and wisps of stardust containing the elements of life being recycled into new galaxies, NASA said on Wednesday.

The space agency released the first batch of images from the orbiting Hubble, repaired by shuttle astronauts in May, and said they show the once-doomed telescope has been reinvented yet again.

"The telescope was given an extreme makeover and now is significantly more powerful than ever, well-equipped to last into the next decade," Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said at a news conference.

The newly installed Cosmic Origins Spectrograph got detail data on a galaxy called Markarian 817 being pulled into a supermassive black hole, and an exploded star in the Large Magellanic Cloud that are both spewing matter into space.

"We believe that most of the matter in space is actually wispy filaments between the galaxies," James Green of the University of Colorado told the news conference. Hubble is making these wisps visible for the first time.

The spectral imager detected oxygen, nitrogen and carbon. "The elements of life are being produced in stars ... but they are also being distributed through the cosmos," Green said.

Another star has jets, material being blasted out "from what probably is going to be a planetary system by the time this thing settles down," said Bob O'Connell of the University of Virginia.

In May, space shuttle astronauts repaired two shorted-out instruments and installed a new camera and the spectrograph.

"We are giddy with the quality of data that we have with this new telescope," Heidi Hammel, senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, told the news conference.

SEVERAL BRUSHES WITH DISASTER

Hubble has survived several brushes with disaster. Soon after it was launched in 1990, astronomers discovered to their panic that it was out of focus and shuttle astronauts had to install a fix in 1993.

Another servicing mission was scrapped after the 2003 accident that killed the entire crew of the space shuttle Columbia, and NASA considered just letting the telescope die. Astronomers protested strongly, but they are now being careful to justify Hubble's continued expense at every opportunity.

"In all humility I truly believe that Hubble has fundamentally changed the course of modern astronomy and astrophysics," said David Leckrone of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

On Tuesday, a presidential review panel said the U.S. human spaceflight program was on an "unsustainable trajectory", spending too much money.

The Human Space Flight Review Committee suggested using NASA funds to encourage commercial companies to get into the business of launching travelers to the International Space Station.

University of Alberta history professor Robert Smith estimated that $15 billion has been spent on the Hubble telescope. "Astronomers now have to ensure that their projects are technically and scientifically feasible to get funding; they also have to assemble a political coalition to see their projects through," Smith said in a statement.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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